


Leave It In The Past

by paper_aircrafts



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Chaos Theory?, F/F, M/M, Secret Organizations, Superpowers, Time Travel, time travel explanations based on my understanding of Steins;Gate
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-26
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-02-07 06:41:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12835479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paper_aircrafts/pseuds/paper_aircrafts
Summary: “I've lived this time period already, Evan, and it doesn't end well,” Heidi takes a deep breath, “You died eight years in the future.”“I'm going to die?!” Evan exclaims, heart beating rapidly in his chest.“No, son, I said you died.”“H-how can I d-die, past tense, in the f-future?”Heidi sighs, “Time travel is… tricky.”





	1. Prologue

“Grandma, I- I don't understand, y-you're not m-making any s-sense.”

“I know, it sounds crazy, but with the way we're living now, is it really that far fetched?” Heidi questions.

Evan still shakes his head in disbelief. “B-but what do you mean, you're my- my mom? Grandma, have you taken your-”

“Yes I've taken my meds, and I haven't lost my mind, I need you to listen to me, okay?”

Evan nodded his head warily, taking a seat across from Heidi.

“I've lived this time period already, Evan, and it doesn't end well,” Heidi takes a deep breath, “You died eight years in the future.”

“I'm going to die?!” Evan exclaims, heart beating rapidly in his chest.

“No, son, I said you died.”

“H-how can I d-die, past tense, in the f-  
future?”

Heidi sighs, “Time travel is… tricky.”

“T-time travel?”

“Yes, now stop asking questions and listen,” Heidi said chuckling.

“S-sorry.”

Heidi waved his apology off, starting her explanation, “So, as far as I understand, there are multiple timelines existing at once, and when you go back in time and change something, you create a completely new timeline, and new possibilities of future outcomes exist because of that one change- are you following me?”

“I think?”

Heidi smiles. “In my original timeline, you were born in 1998, and you died in 2055. You-” she stops, clearing her throat, “you were murdered by D.E.H”

“D.E.H?”

She nods solemnly, “‘Destruction and Exculpation of Humankind.' They're a secret organization set out to ‘cleanse the human race’ in order to create some utopian society,” Heidi scoffs, “They're just a bunch of pretentious assholes who think they can figure out an equation to human emotion by reading a bunch of textbooks- nothing but sociopaths.”

Heidi takes a shaky breath. “But they managed to get somewhere.” She balls her hand into a fist, and slams it down on the table, angrily, teeth clenched.

“Ma,” Evan says softly, placing his hand on top of hers, not knowing what else to do.

Heidi takes another deep breath. “This organization had been brewing for awhile, I think it started in the 1950s? No one had taken it seriously, though, brushed it off as just another cult, seeking attention, and that's how we missed it,” Heidi says shaking her head softly.

“The members of D.E.H were getting secret government aid. They had people on the inside giving them access to all types of data. Documents upon documents with yet to be made technological advances, warfare, and,” Heidi gulps, “genetic enhancements.”

Evan looks down at his hands. Oh.

Heidi nods knowingly. “They had a team of scientists working constantly, trying to figure out and perfect the formula-”

“A-and they managed to? be- before I was born?”

“Yes and no. One scientist had, his name was Larry Murphy, but he overheard the barbaric plans of the organization and he kept the one vial of successful serum under lock and key. He was one of the youngest scientist there at the time, so nobody expected him to be the first to figure it out anyway. He stayed there for a few months longer without ever being under suspicion, until he faked his death, and moved to Colorado with his fiancée, Cynthia”

“W-when did he create the serum?”

“1996, about two years before you were born. This is where you start to fit into the story.”

Evan gulped.

“Larry wasn't stupid. He knew that he wouldn't be the only one to figure a working formula, and he knew the organization would carry out their plans once someone else did, so he started crafting his own superhuman army, by slipping the serum to pregnant women.”

“S-so that these powers would be given to their offspring?”

Heidi hummed, “Exactly. From 1967 to 69, he'd given the serum to five women, well four, really, his fiancée, Cynthia had two kids, about a year apart, so she received it twice, then there was Diana Beck, Jeanine Kleinman, and-”

“Y-You, Heidi Hansen,” Evan finished.

“Yep,” Heidi chuckled. “That slick bastard, I was at the local café, stealing the high speed wifi- I was taking online courses, trying to get my bachelors. He's in the booth across the floor from mine, and he says, ‘Excuse me ma’am, I believe you dropped your notebook,’ I tried to bend over to pick it up, but when you're pregnant that's a lot harder than it sounds. So, that's when he plays the good samaritan card. He walked over and placed a hand on my shoulder, and said, ‘Don't worry, I've got it.’ I don't even remember the feeling of a little needle in my shoulder,” Heidi laughed curtly, “Hell, I was so swamped with school work, I didn't realize that I hadn't brought a notebook with me until I returned home.”

Heidi shook her head lightly, “Anyway, Larry was right in his prediction. One of those scientists had figured out a somewhat successful formula, though not as powerful as his was. It was definitely impressive, but it was full of glitches. The power often appeared in sporadic surges, or was too much for a body to handle. That's why we thought we had a chance,” Heidi sighed, running a hand through her thinning, silver hair. 

“We chalked up the failure to timing. They attacked in 2055, you all had aged, in your late fifties. You hadn't been using your powers to your full potential, we didn't teach you guys like we should've because we didn't see the attack coming a whole forty years later! But now- now we're prepared, we've got something they don't- a glimpse into the future.”

“S-so now that I've been training, you're gonna send m-me into the future to f-fight those guys?”

Heidi shook her head, “No, sir.”

“Then-”

“After you died and everything went to hell, myself, along with the parents of the other superhuman children, started this planning. After some research, we estimated that the year D.E.H found a working serum was the summer of 2015, you'll be going back to the summer of 2014, where you'll meet with the others and have time to train as a group, then stop D.E.H while it's still weak.”

“Okay,” Evan said slowly, nodding his head, “okay, I think I'm understanding, b-but I still have a question.

“Shoot.”

“Why are a-all the other kids w-with abilities growing up in that t-timeline, while I'm here?”

“Good question, it's because you're special.”

“Huh?”

“You see, Larry didn't know exactly what abilities the serum would give you kids, it all depended on how your body reacted with it. Your body reacted differently from the rest.”

“How?”

“I'm not the mad scientist in this operation, so you're getting the simplistic version.”

“O-okay.”

“You all have powers that somehow involve the four ‘original elements’ determined by the ancient Greeks, fire earth, wind, and water- according to Larry, that was the easiest formula to follow. Your powers are different from their’s in two ways. One way being that they each have the power to use one of the four elements to their will- don't ask who has which, I don't know- while you have the power to use all four. That leads us into the second difference-”

“W-which is?” Evan asks eagerly.

“Sheesh, I'm getting there,” Heidi smirks, “The second one is that they summon their power from within themselves while you manipulate what's around you. For example, you've learned that when you want to create a gust of wind, you manipulate the existing air around you, controlling it to do so. Whichever one of those kids has the wind ability doesn't do that. Instead, they can create that gust of wind themselves, like, it can emerge from their hands or whatnot.” 

“I- I see, but that- it doesn't really explain why I'm in a different timeline.”

“Oh, I guess it doesn't. After the original plan failed in 2055 and we carried out this one, we went back in time to alert our past selves of that timeline so they’d- or we’d, I guess- start training you guys early on in life. Larry funded the installment of training centers in everyone’s basement or cellar, to help. But, already knowing how your powers work, we knew confining you in that space wouldn't do you any good, and we couldn't have you train out in the open for obvious reasons.”

“Uh huh.”

“So, we decide to bring infant you to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, in the year 2030. Lawrenceburg had never been the most popular places of residency, but starting around 2030 and lasting about twenty years, Indiana undergoes some mass gentrification. It was in an attempt to get money to fix up the overall poor conditions of the state. It drove out many of the people living here, they couldn't afford it,” Heidi shook her head softly, “It's sad, but that worked out well for us, here we have isolation for miles, and we're surrounded by nature. You received better training here than you ever could have there.”

“Okay, u-um, I have another q-question.”

“Ask away.”

“Y-you said, earlier, that when you go back in time a-and change something, you create a- a new timeline that exists along with the- the other one?”

“Correct.”

“S-so doesn't that mean… even if we do stop D.E.H-”

“When you stop D.E.H,” Heidi interjects.

“W-when we stop D.E.H, there- there will always b-be a timeline where they exist, a-and the world is doomed?”

“Ah, but you see, you'll be sent back to the Summer of 2014 of the timeline you died in.”

“B-but won't there be an Evan already existing th-there?”

“You are the Evan that should be existing there, when I took you as an infant to bring you here, I took you from that timeline to avoid having you meet yourself, and end up causing some sort of black hole or whatnot in the future. Like I said, time travel is tricky.”

“W-well then what's going to happen on this timeline?- What's going to happen to you?”

Heidi shrugged, “Who knows, I’ll probably be dead before 2055 anyway.”

“D-don't say that.”

Heidi laughed, “Honey, I’m ninety-four years old, it happens, I can't live forever, and quite frankly, I don't want to.”

“I- I don't like to- to think about it,” Evan mumbled.

“Think about it this way, all these other timelines are just sub-timelines of my original- or the ‘alpha-’ timeline. They only exist because of things that did or didn't happen on that timeline, so a change to that timeline will likely cause a change to this one. I can't promise if it'll be in the same way, or on the same scale, but for all intents and purposes, let's say it will be positive.”

“That- that makes me feel a little bit better.”

Heidi smiled, “Good. Now let's do some more training, and then you get to bed, and rest up for tomorrow, time travel can be a strain on the body.”

“W-wait! I'm going tomorrow?! Y-you can't- how can you just, like, drop this load on me a-and be like ‘o-oh by the way, the weight of the world is officially on your shoulders tomorrow!’”

Heidi let out a huff of air, “I know it's a lot, and I'm sorry, but if I'd told you earlier, you'd be training under pressure, not at your best.”

“I- I guess that's true,” Evan grabbed Heidi's hand in his, and blinked away the tears gathering in his eyes. “I- I'm going to miss you.”

Heidi placed a shaky hand on Evan’s cheek, and said, “Don't you worry about that. We’ll be seeing each other soon.”


	2. Summer of 2014

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rustling stops a few feet over Connor's head. He hears a groan from the creature in the tree, and figures his high must be lingering because that groan sounded very human-like.

Connor was pissed, but that's nothing new. He had gotten in a fight with his dad- also a regular occurrence- and it ended in him accidentally burning a very small- barely noticeable- hole in the wall.

After being yelled at for what seemed like hours for losing his temper and burning a- barely noticeable- hole in the wall. He was sent to his room to ‘cool off,’ as Larry put it.

(Larry thinks that word play is very clever, and it only serves to further aggravate Connor.)

Connor, of course, does not stay in his room. He sneaks out of his bedroom window, onto the roof of his house, and shimmies down that large tree- he doesn't what type- and onto his driveway, like he's done so many times before. He gets in his car and drives off to this favorite park.

It's a beautiful, open field framed with trees, surrounded by large hills. 

Connor's goes to his favorite spot. It's pretty far away from the main road, with a large pond in the clearing.

With a snap of his fingers, Connor lights an already rolled joint, and tries to forget why he and his dad were arguing in the first place.

Connor had just finished his junior year of highschool- summer break having started about a week ago- and was trying to enjoy his time away from that hell, when Larry suddenly called him downstairs, sounding irritated, and Connor already knew what it was going to be about.

His school sends to the parents of the students a paper copy of the courses their child, or children, selected for next year, and Larry got on Connor's ass about not having chosen enough rigorous courses, or some bullshit. He then went into his rant about college, and how Connor is destroying his future.

Then Connor yells back about how his whole life is revolved around saving the future, with him training everyday, trying to control his power, and he's still, at least passing all of his classes, and Larry just refuses to recognize his efforts.

Then Larry yells that he could be trying harder, and starts comparing him to Zoe.

Then Connor defends that Zoe isn't in the same mental state that he is.

Then Larry says he's using his ‘mental illness’ as an excuse.

Then Connor burns a- barely noticeable- hole in the wall.

And now he's here.

Connor takes a deep breath. He can feel himself getting angry again, and that's not what he wants.

So much for forgetting. 

He looks down at the joint in his hands. He doesn't remember it getting that low. Connor wants to stop smoking one day.

He throws the remainder of the blunt on the ground, stomping it out. He’ll probably come to regret not finishing that later, but for now he’ll pretend like trying is worth it.

Connor walks over to a tall tree, with bountiful green leaves, a little ways away from the pond.

He sits under the shade of tree, its leaves providing relief from the merciless heat of the sun, and sort of dozes off.  
~~~  
Connor assumes he gets to relax under the tree for about thirty minutes, when his half sleep is disturbed by a loud, distressed sounding squawk- most likely from a bird- followed by rustling that started from the top of the tree, and gets significantly closer to the base, where Connor is sitting.

Connor stands up, and tries to peer up through the branches at whatever creature had poorly landed in the tree.

The rustling stops a few feet over Connor's head. He hears a groan from the creature in the tree, and figures his high must be lingering because that groan sounded very human-like.

Then a deafening crack resounded through the park.

Connor doesn't know what the hell came over him, but he saw himself reach his arms out in an attempt to catch whatever the hell would be falling from the tree. 

He followed the sound of the crack, and practically lunged for the glimpse of the figure he saw emerge from the branches.

It wasn't until after Connor was on the ground, his ass and lower back now sore, that he realized his arms were wrapped around a person. 

Connor looked down at the person in his arms. He appeared to be a young boy, probably a teenager, with sandy brown hair, wearing an all black tracksuit. His eyes closed deathly tight, as if he were still waiting for his head to meet the ground. 

What the hell?

“What the hell?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the commenting and kudo(ing?) and just like reading in general :)


	3. Rough Landing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Yes- yes, I'm Evan, uh- Hansen.”
> 
> Larry shakes his hand sternly. “We’ve been expecting you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here we go again :), shout out to my pal Luc for helping me get this rolling, and thanks for your comments, kudos, and time

“Alright, I've set the watch to Alpha, and set the location. We can't enter addresses on here so you're landing may be a bit sporadic- I ended up in the bush of some family’s backyard,” Heidi laughed, light and airy, “You should've seen their faces.”

She tapped at the screen and eight little boxes appeared. Heidi scratches her head, “Go to June 22nd, 2014, I believe you all should be out of school by then.”

Evan types it in the watch, but doesn't press go yet. He looks at Heidi, “A-are you sure I'm ready for this?”

“As sure as the Earth is round.”

“But-”

“Son,” she said sternly, “I know you're scared, you have every right to be, but you were _literally_ born for this.”

“T-that didn't help me the first time,” Evan muttered, instantly regretting the words as he saw Heidi’s figure shrink.

“Ma, I'm sorry, it's just- I just,” He ran a hand through his hair, “I would hate for everyone to have gone through all this trouble, just to have me screw it all up _again_ ,” he spoke in a rush.

“Hey, Evan, come here.”

Evan walked over to Heidi, crouching down to the size of her chair.

“First of all, that wasn't your fault. Secondly, that's not going to happen again. We reflected on that, we changed the past to save our future and it will not go to waste,” She pulled him into a tight hug, “You're going to do great things, son”

“I love you, Ma.”

“I love you too Evan, so much.”

He takes a deep breath, and stands to leave, finger hovering over the green button.

He still has one more question.

“Ma, be- before I go, I have to ask,” Evan clears his throat.

“I- this may be, um, tough for you to answer, b-but I think it would help to know exactly- uh, exactly how I died?”

Heidi was silent, blinking rapidly. After a tense silence she spoke.

“Y-yeah that is a tough one. It's an unpleasant memory that I, unfortunately, can't forget,” she said slowly.

Evan felt a small pang of guilt at making her recall this, but he was no less intrigued.

“But you're right, you should know,” She said, looking him in the eyes.  
~~~  
His grand- his mom, definitely sugarcoated the brutality of time travel.

He’d done everything right. The watch was set to the right time, He wore the thinnest clothing he had, and didn't wear any shoes. All these things apparently made warping through time a “pretty smooth ride, with only a few potholes.”

Yeah, right.

Evan’s body felt like it was one fire, like his arms and legs were trying to be ripped from his body. Rapid flashes of blue light past by him, and that's the only detail he was able to make out while in agony.

After what seemed like years of that hell, there was actually a peaceful part of his trip.

Evan was floating around in what was, at first, complete darkness, then, slowly, millions of thin streams of blue light started surrounding him. His watch beeped rapidly, before dragging him over to a thick streak of blue light that was, more or less, directly in the center of all the other lights.

The alpha timeline.

Once he was completely enveloped in that light, he started slowly descending into a bright, white light below him.

Upon reaching that light, gravity decides to exist again, and he quickly registers that he's falling out of the sky.

In his panic, he tries to gain some control of the air around him, but that proves to be difficult when he can't stop thinking, _I’m falling out of the sky oh my god ohmygod-_

He shakes his head, forcing himself to focus, if even the slightest bit.

He manages to force some air to push up against his back, counterweighting the air pushing him down, and slowing down the speed of his freefall.

(He thinks he collides with a bird somewhere on the way, and feels really bad about it)

As if his luck couldn't get any worse, once he gets close enough to the ground he sees that he's not actually going to meet the solid ground, but rather, a tree.

He quiets the thoughts of, _I'm definitely snapping my neck on one of these branches_ , and wills the branches to shift and create an opening for him to fall straight through.

He manages pretty well, almost making it to the base of the tree without hitting a single branch.

_Almost_.

His back meets the surface of the rough bark, with a hard thud. That's definitely leaving a mark.

He barely has time to let out a groan before he hears a loud crack feeling the branch give out beneath him.

He squeezes his eyes shut tightly, dreading the moment where his head makes contact with the hard ground.

With his mind wrapped around that, he doesn't acknowledge his fall being cushioned. More specifically, he doesn't notice being caught by a stranger, that is until the stranger loudly exclaims a, “What the hell?” uncomfortably close to Evan’s ear.

Evan’s eyes spring open to find himself wrapped in the arms of a boy, probably around his age, with piercing blue eyes- one of which held a splash of brown amidst the blue, and long, tangled brown hair.

Evan can't stop looking at those eyes. They remind him of the sky in Van Gogh’s Starry Night, they're very captivating…

As well as confused, and angry looking. Evan can understand why, seeing as how not only did he use this man as a cushion, but he's also been sitting on him, staring at his eyes for- what was probably- an abnormally long amount of time.

He hurriedly scrambled off this guy's lap, face scarlet, and immediately started apologizing.

“O-oh my god, I'm so sorry, I didn't, uh know anybody was here, and obviously I wasn't- wasn't planning on falling out of- uh- out of a tree so-”

“Please. Please, stop talking,” the stranger cuts Even off agitatedly.

They sit in unbearably awkward silence for a while.

“S-sorry,” Evan squeaks out in a high-pitched voice. “For, uh,” He waves his hand around wildly, trying to somehow convey everything he's apologizing for in the gesture, “yeah,” he ends awkwardly.

The guy doesn't accept, or reject Evan’s apology. Instead he locks his eyes on Evan’s right hand, pointing to it.

“You're hand is bleeding,” he supplies.

Evan looks down at his hand, it has quite a large gash that is, in fact, bleeding. Perfect.

“Yeah,” he says dejectedly, “It's probably from the, uh, the tree.” Evan mentally slaps himself. _Yeah obviously it was from the tree._ But what else was he supposed to say to that?

“Fuck, I don't know,” the stranger snaps, seemingly having an internal debate with himself, “Do you need like a hospital or something?”

“N-no, that's not- I um…” Evan blanks for a moment. How do you say, ‘I can't go to a hospital because I'm a superhuman time traveler on a mission to save mankind,’ without sounding crazy.

“...It's a sm- small cut, I’ll just put like a napkin on, uh, or something,” he lies instead, attempting a smile, but knows he's grimacing.

The man squints his eyes and nods, “Okay,” he says, slowly starting to get up, clearly uncomfortable.

Even though Evan also wants nothing more than for this interaction to end, he doesn't know where he is, and it would be stupid of him to turn away help.

“Um, I’m sorry, but, if it's not too much, can you- uh, tell me how to- to get, here,” Evan stuttered, reaching into the breast pocket of his jacket, and taking out the address of the house where he should find Larry Murphy.

The guy looked at the paper.

Evan watched his expression flicker from curiosity, to confusion, to anger.

“Is this some type of joke?” The stranger demanded, voice raising significantly in volume.

“W-what? No, how would I- why would I be joking?” Evan stuttered out confusedly.

What was this guy's problem?

“I don't fucking know, why is my address on here?” he yelled, shaking the paper violently.

Then, that's when Evan noticed flames licking at the tips of the stranger's hair, and suddenly this situation made a lot more sense.

“O-oh, you must be, um, Larry Murphy’s son?”

The boy raised a brow, “Who the hell are you?” He asked, his voice a significantly lower volume, but Evan assumed he was still angry- that is if his gritted teeth were anything to go by.

“Evan, Evan Hansen.”

A look of recognition appears in his features, and a little tension leaves his shoulders. He squints his eyes at Evan.

“The guy who's supposed to help us save the world, yeah?” The guy asks, with sarcasm present in his tone.

Evan laughs curtly and awkwardly, “Sure.”

“Well follow me then, I guess, I'll take you there.”

“Thank you, um, what's- what's your name?”

“Connor,” the boy- or Connor- said stiffly.

“Oh, okay. l’m-”

“We covered that.”

“We did,” Evan agreed, nodding sharply, shutting his mouth into a straight line.  
~~~  
The car ride was extremely uncomfortable and tense, but Evan can't really say he wasn't expecting that based on the previous interaction.

The only words spoken were Evan’s attempted “thank you” to Connor, when he handed him tissues for his hand, and Connor basically telling him to shut up.

Connor had turned the radio on halfway through the drive, making it a little bit less horrible, and Evan really appreciated that.

After for about a half hour or so, Connor pulled into the driveway of a large gray mansion, with a white door that had a fancy glass window. Very nice. The building had a very large, and well kept lawn, with a fountain located further right of property, and was surrounded by a large, black gate.

He said a dry, “We’re here,” before getting out of the car, Evan followed him.

“Wow- um, this is really… impressive,” Evan said, looking around in amazement.

Connor scoffed. “Yeah, it's obnoxiously massive, I know.”

“I didn't-”

“But, it's gotta fit four- well, now five, I guess, teens’ rooms and ‘training centers’ in there so,” Connor ended with a shrug.

“I thought- I was told that every f-family, just had training centers installed i-in their home?”

“Apparently, that was the plan, but this ended up being less costly, and better space wise.”

“Oh, makes sense.”

Connor and Evan walk up to the front gate. Evan watches as Connor produces a thin, gray lanyard that's attached to a blue keycard from the back pocket of his skinny jeans. He places it on some type of scanner that rest on the bars of the gate, and pushes the gate open when a small light on the scanner’s pad flashes green.

They walk up to the steps of the front porch, Evan eagerly soaking in the scenery around him as they do.

Connor scans his keycard on a similar pad near the front door, again, pushing it open when the light is green.

The open doors reveal a large foyer with a carpet covered in multiple pairs of shoes. Connor was taking his off there. Evan looked down at his light blue socks, and frowned. He knew the dirty brown that adorned the bottom of the socks would never fully wash out.

They weren't able to get much further into the interior of the house, before Evan saw a woman walking rapidly towards them, her heels clacking loudly against the tiled floor.

Evan immediately avoids eye contact with the ginger haired woman, though he really doesn't need to since her eyes are strictly on Connor’s face.

“Connor! Where did you go?! We’ve told you about leaving when you know you're-”

“A psychotic freak, I know,” Connor groaned, rolling his eyes.

Hurt flashed on the woman's face. “Connor I would never- No one thinks that, sweetie,” she says placing a hand on his arm.

Connor frowns at the hand on his arm. He mutters a quiet, but sarcastic sounding, “I know, mom,” shrugging it out of the woman's soft grip.

He sighs, “While I was out, I found Evan Hansen.”

“You found…” a confused look passes on the woman's face before she then looks ecstatic, seemingly remembering who Evan was- or at least supposed to be.

Connor made a gesture towards Evan with his hand, and before Evan had time to prepare himself, those ecstatic eyes were already on him.

“O-oh, hi Mrs.-”

“Oh, Evan! It's so great to finally meet you, we've been wondering when you would show up,” she says, pulling him into a hug.

Evan awkwardly hugs her back, wrapping his arm with the non-injured hand around her.

“Yes, um, thanks for letting me into y-your home Mrs.Murphy,” Evan stutters.

Mrs.Murphy pulls back from the hug, her hands resting on Evan’s shoulders. “This is your home now, too,” she says, “And please, call me Cynthia.”

Not knowing what else to do, Evan returns Cynthia’s smile.

He’s grateful for the sudden cough that erupts from Connor, his face starting to hurt from the forced smile.

“Um, Evan is here to see Larry.”

Cynthia blinks rapidly, shaking her head, “Of course! All this must be really new and confusing, I’m sure you'd like some answers.”

She turns to Connor, and Evan instantly lets out a breath he hadn't realized he been holding. Social situations are a lot for him to handle.

“Connor, your father is in his office, take Evan to see him, please.”

Connor rolled his eyes, and started walking off, presumably towards his dad's office. He nodded his head in a “follow me” gesture, so that's what Evan did.

“Sorry if my mom freaked you out. She can be a bit...much at times- most of the time, actually.”

“Um, s-she's nice.”

Connor hummed, eyebrows raising slightly, and they continued to walk in silence.

After walking past a large living room, family room, dining room, and kitchen, they walked through a long hallway with multiple rooms until they reached a staircase at the end of the hall.

They then went up the staircase and walked past a lounge room (Evan didn't even know that was a thing), another dining room, and through another hall, also with multiple rooms, until they reached the end of the hall, and were facing a large, opaque glass window, with a cherry wood frame.

Connor knocked on the door once, sharply and loudly. After a few moments, a gruff voice calls out, “come in.” Connor pushes the door open, ushering Evan in before him.

Larry Murphy sat behind his desk. He had broad shoulders, salt and pepper hair, and a grimace on his face as looked between Connor and Evan.

Larry cleared his throat, “You didn't say you were bringing someone over, Connor,” he said, voice strained.

“Didn't plan on it,” Connor said monotonously, “I found him while I was out, you know, ‘cooling down,” he said with a smirk, sitting down in one of the office chairs in front of Larry’s desk.

Evan started squirming uncomfortably from the suffocating tension in the room. He watched the father and son stare at each other, as stood silent in the corner of the room. The cut on his hand was starting to burn under the tissue. His back was stinging too.

“Connor-” Larry started sternly, though he was cut off by a loud sigh from Connor.

“Can we save the lecture for later. I'm only here because mom made me bring Hansen up here.”

“Hansen?” Larry looked at Evan, who was still standing awkwardly in the corner of the room. “Are you Heidi's boy?”

Evan nodded much too eagerly, holding out his non injured hand for a handshake.

“Yes- yes, I'm Evan, uh- Hansen.”

Larry shakes his hand sternly. “We’ve been expecting you.”

Evan scratched the back of his neck, “Y-yeah, I've heard, it- it's a lot of pr-pressure if I'm honest, s-sir.”

“It is, but I trust that you all are smart, gifted individuals who, with a push in the right direction, will succeed.”

Connor chuckled dryly, and Larry shot him a glare in response.

“I hope so,” Evan stuttered out.

“Now, I’ll give a rundown on how living here works.”

Evan listened as Larry told him how all of the other kids lived here as well, Connor, Alana, Jared, and Zoe, and they all had separate bedrooms and training rooms, both of which were built to accommodate for their own, specific ability.

Larry told him that they did have to follow a schedule, but it wasn't very strict. There would specific times where they’d all have to train and eat, but otherwise, they were allowed to “spend their summer break like normal teenagers.”

After that, he'd given Evan an overview of where things were located in the large mansion, though Evan hadn't managed to grasp all of what Larry had said. Larry promised that Connor would give him a tour later, (a promise that Connor made clear he wasn't happy about with a loud, and over dramatic groan).

“I know it sounds like a lot now, but give it a week or so, and I'm sure it'll start to feel natural,” Larry finishes.

“Th-thank you, sir-”

“Larry.”

“Larry,” Evan nodded in agreement, “I still have a- uh, a question? When will- do I get to see, um, my- my mom?”

“Anytime you please,” Larry said smiling. “As long as it doesn't interfere with your scheduled training and meal times, that is. Did you want to go today?”

Evan thought it over. After all he’s had to go through today, he doesn't think he's mentally prepared to see a younger version of- who he thought was his grandma- all emotional over her reunion with her son. Also, what if his dad was there? Heidi had told him his dad left them in her timeline, but what if that changed since Evan wasn't around? Evan sorta knows his mom, but he's never even met his dad, what would he say to him? It was too tiring to think about.

“N-no, thank you, I'd rather get settled in today,” Evan smiled warily.

“That's understandable,” Larry said standing up. “Connor you can show Evan to his room during the tour.”

“Why the fuck do I-”

“Language,” Larry said, teeth gritted. He turned back to Evan, “I don't suppose you have any other clothes on you, do you?”

“N-no, sorry.”

“That's alright, Connor will lend you some until he takes you shopping tomorrow.”

“Why are picking on me?”

“You need something better to do than burn holes in walls anyway, _Connor_ ,” Larry said sternly.

“That was a fucking accident.”

Larry just sighed, he turned to Evan, holding out his hand for a handshake, “It was nice meeting you, Evan.”

Evan held out his hand to reciprocate, but was stopped short when Larry let out a long whistle, “What happened there?”

Evan had forgotten about his beaten up hand, but now it started burning again, as if bringing attention to it had brought the pain back. The tissues he had wrapped around the largest cut were soaked red.

“O-oh, I fell out of the sky, time travel is rough,” Evan laughed nervously.

Larry frowned, “You should probably get that cleaned up. I’ll fix this watch for you-”  
he said as he took the cracked watch off of Evan’s wrist, “And Connor will-”

“Of fucking course,” Connor nearly shouted, hysterically. The tips of his hair flaring up like they had at the park. He left the room, spitting an annoyed “C’mon Hansen, guess I'm your fucking servant or some shit.”

“Language,” Larry called after him.

“Th-thank you, Larry,” Evan said before hurriedly following Connor out the room, door closing behind him.  
~~~  
Evan sucked in a breath as Connor applied rubbing alcohol to his cuts.

Connor rolled his eyes at Evan (he does that a lot), but still waved his hand over Evan’s cut to cool the burning.

“T-thanks,” Evan said, smiling at Connor.

Connor looked up at Evan for a second before he looked back down, humming in response.

As Connor started rubbing some aloe vera ointment over the cuts, he spoke up.

“What's the future like?”

Evan flinched a bit, startled by the sudden break of the silence.

“Um, where I lived was...pretty quiet, a-and, uh, isolated for the most part so-” Evan shrugged, “b-but considering that I was technically supposed to be killed by some evil organization,” Evan laughed dryly, “n-not too great.”

Connor paused in his movements for a moment, “Who’s to say we won't all die this go round?”

Evan chuckled curtly and awkwardly, not sure if that was a joke. _And he thought he thought he was pessimistic._

“We- well, everyone I've talked to has it convinced we're gonna s-save the world?”

Connor put back the ointment and took out some gauze, his eyebrows furrowed.

“I didn't say we wouldn't save the world, but even if we do, that doesn't mean we'll live through the climax.”

“We just h-have to hope for the best, then?”

Connor sighed, “Hansen, I don't give a shit if I live or not. My life compared to the survival this shitty world is insignificant.”

Evan felt a pang of hurt in his chest. Was it pity? empathy? sympathy? He doesn't know. He just hated to hear someone speak so lowly of themselves.

“I- don't say that, it's- that- that's not true.”

Connor paused in wrapping the gauze around Evan’s hand. He looked at Evan’s eyes- for what felt like years- before looking back down at Evan’s hand, continuing with wrapping the gauze around it.

He shrugged and mumbled, “What would you know?”

Evan’s not exactly sure what he was thinking when he replied, “M-more than you, I'm from the future, remember?”

He instantly grimaced, expecting Connor to yell at him, or set his his hand on fire, or something of that magnitude.

Instead Connor chuckled, non sarcastically this time, as he said, “That's as close as you've gotten to sarcastic all day.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry. I uh, usually don't do sarcasm- or like jokes, or normal teenage things, sorry.”

“No, I was impressed. You're ruining it.”

“Sorry.”

“You really don't have to keep saying that,” Connor grunted.

Evan shut his mouth into a straight line, unconsciously holding his breath.

Connor looked up at him, “You want to say sorry, don't you?”

“Yes, very much so,” Evan released in one, quick breath.

Connor chuckled again, shaking his head. “You're done now,” he said, as he got up to put away the first aid supplies.

“Thank you,”

“Don't mention it, seriously. You've said that and sorry enough today.”

“S- I mean- you know what I mean,” he spoke, face getting warmer.

Connor laughed softly.

Evan smiled, looking down at his gauze covered hand. Where had he even hit it? That landing had been pretty bad. How was he going to learn how to better use his powers, on top of learning how to use them along side other people's powers in just a year? If Larry was so smart, why did they give this responsibility to a bunch of kids.

Connor sighed, “Here.” Evan looked at him curiously to see Connor going through one of the bathroom’s cabinet drawers, and pull out a black sharpie.

He grabbed Evan’s hand a bit too harshly, to which Evan let out an “ouch” and got a quick “sorry” in reply.

Evan watched as Connor signed his name in all caps, as big as possible, on the gauze on the back of Evan's hand.

Evan looked down, “Oh, Thanks?”

“I take it back, that's the most sarcastic thing you've said since you've been here.”

“No- no, I wasn't trying to be- I'm just confused?”

“Well, the most genuine smile you've worn all day vanished while staring at your hand, so…” Connor shrugged.

“Oh- oh. Thanks.”

Connor shrugged again.

“S-so, how about a tour?”

Connor grimaced.

Instantly, Evan backtracked, “Uh, only if you want, though.”

“I really don't have a choice, but thanks for making me feel like I do.”

“You're welcome?”

Connor rolled his eyes, “Get out for a minute.”

“O-okay, yeah, but- um, the tour?”

“Can I piss first?” Connor asked monotonously.

“Oh, yes. of- of course,” Evan stuttered, knowing he was red in the face. He hurriedly stepped out of the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.

He traced Connor’s name on his hand with his finger as he waited.

Maybe this year- this timeline- would turn out okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Confused yet? Hopefully you enjoyed it :)


End file.
